The Cult

“We’re playing around with the idea of putting new music out as capsules,” says Cult frontman Ian Astbury. “That means we’d release two new songs every three months grouped with a live recording of songs from our catalog plus visual elements. We’d do it in all formats: vinyl, digital downloads, CDs…Everything available. It’ll be dropped for a limited time in a quick strike and then it’s gone.”

The Cult broke up for brief periods in the Nineties and mid-2000s, but have been working very steadily since 2006. Ticket sales surged four years ago when they began playing their 1985 album Love at their concerts, and this year’s Electric tour has been another big success. “We don’t just do the album, an encore and then split,” says Astbury. “We come out after the album and do another ten or twelve songs. Also, we’ll do this one Electric tour and that’s it. We’re not big nostalgists. We want to use our body of work in a creative way that’s not cynical. This is about maintaining our momentum our profile and our connection with our audience and it’s not like we’re using Twitter and Instagram every five minutes.”

Beggars Archive has set a July 30 release date for a two-disc set from The Cult on CD and vinyl called “Electric Peace”, which will pair “Electric” with the abandoned “Peace” album, tracks from which have been released over the years on “The Manor Sessions” EP, as “Electric” B-sides and on 2000’s “Rare Cult”.

In 1985, The Cult enjoyed breakthrough success with the single “She Sells Sanctuary” and the album “Love”, establishing themselves as a new breed of alternative rock band. When it came to recording a follow-up, the band booked into The Manor studios in Oxfordshire with Steve Brown again producing the album. By the end of October 1986, the album was recorded, the masters assembled and it was given the title “Peace”. However, the band weren’t happy with the final results, which seemed too polished. Appreciating the rawness of RUN-D.M.C.’s “Walk This Way”, the band contacted producer Rick Rubin to remix the lead track, “Love Removal Machine”. Rubin agreed to work with the band but only on condition that the track was entirely re-recorded. The result was a sparse, dry, riffing version that captured the sonic excitement the band were looking for. Enthused by the results, the decision was made to abandon the expensive “Peace” recordings and re-record the entire album in New York with Rick Rubin. The new tracks would become The Cult’s third album, re-titled “Electric”, and a multi-million seller.

Tracks from “Peace” were used as single B-sides and some of the alternative versions were issued on an early CD, “The Manor Sessions”, but it wasn’t until the limited “Rare Cult” box set in 2000 that fans got to hear the full album correctly sequenced. The box rapidly sold out so “Peace” has been unavailable for 13 years.